


Against All Odds

by Jackson_Overland_Frost



Series: It's that AU [8]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: A Klance Fanfic, And her Squad Up Universe, College Admissions, Cute, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired By Klance, Kinda, Light Angst, M/M, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, and some others - Freeform, i think, inspired by Because Guys Like Us Are Cool In College by astralscrivener
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2019-11-27 19:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18198296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jackson_Overland_Frost/pseuds/Jackson_Overland_Frost
Summary: Hey, have you read astralscrivener‘s Squad Up universe? Because you totally should it’s really good and also this fic was kinda inspired by it.Aka: Peter and Harley’s new fluffy weird catchphrase.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I just wasn’t able to finish this because I was super busy, but thankfully it’s just a bunch of oneshots, and I’ll finish it IN ADDITION to the weekly upload next time. Phew, spring break is finally here, and I’ll be traveling a lot, which means much more time to write :)

The bullet zoomed past his face, not quite touching the skin, but leaving a red streak nonetheless. Peter’s spider-sense warned him of another one headed his way and he jumped backwards onto to side of the building to avoid it and his friends went insane in his ear. He would mute them, but he was breathing too heavily for words to come out of his mouth, and his brain was to busy to remember that they were even still on the call. He leaped across the narrow alleyway and was followed by an arc of bullets pinging off the walls and shingles. Shooting a web and nabbing one’s gun out of his hand, he picked Abby up by her jacket and set her on the roof gently as Karen, the absolute angle, turned muted everyone on the call besides one. 

“Ohmygod, Pete. Is she okay, are you?” Harley asked in his ear. The voice was panicked and borderline screaming. 

“She’s good, Harley, calm down. After I deal with these guys I’ll swing her back to the tower, okay? You can interrogate her all you want then.”

Abby, Harley’s sister, was shaking in a ball with her arms around her knees once he was done webbing up all the guys. He wasn’t sure what they had planned to do with her and didn’t want to know. It wasn’t often that he patrolled this part of the city, but he was certainly glad he had swung over here today.

He knelt down next to her and took his mask off, his sixth sense telling his that nobody else was around to see. 

“Hey Abby, you’re okay. It’s me, Peter.” He hesitated to touch her, not knowing it would make the whole thing worse, and settled for putting his hand next to her foot. “You’re safe now, but I need you to stand up for me so I can get you to the tower. I know your brother is worried sick about you, and I’ll bet anything your mom is too, okay?” 

Abby sniffed, but slowly uncurled and let him help her stand. Harley’s family was visiting New York for a week, and his mom and sister had been out doing touristy things when they’d gotten separated. After telling the police, Harley’s mom had gotten a ride back to the tower, but Abby had still been missing. Peter hadn’t even known until he was already on patrol and his friends were on group call, and he had found her through pure coincident. She had probably gone looking for her mom and gotten lost before getting attacked, but they wouldn’t know until she was less traumatized and willing to tell them.

Peter let her climb onto his back in a piggyback ride, put his mask back on, and began to swing back to the tower. He could feel her shaking, but he tried his best to focus on swinging. Harley was silent, and he knew why. In order to stay on the call, one had to have their headset on, and said headset had to be plugged into their personal laptop for security purposes. Harley almost definitely shucked his headset off the second he knew they were swinging back to the tower and was now waiting on the roof for them to show up. It was a good thing too, since Peter would probably need his help getting Abby down to the medbay, super-strength or not. 

Harley ran to them the second the touched down on the roof and helped Abby off of Peter’s back.

“Come on, Abby. Let’s go.” He turned to Peter and used his chin to beckon him inside. “Peter, you’re coming too.” 

Peter helped Harley with Abby, the elevator taking them down to the med-bay where Tony and Harley’s mom were waiting. Harley’s mom rushed to her daughter the moment the doors opened, and Tony rushed off to get Dr. Cho, and then running back to stand awkwardly with Peter while Abby sobbed into her mom’s shoulder and Harley hovered over her. It’s always a bit awkward, isn’t it, when someone else’s family member is hurt?

Dr. Helen Cho came over and chased everyone out of the room, leaving them to wait around while the professionals checked for physical and mental damage, one of them more likely than the other. Eventually, one person was allowed in for mental support and Harley let his mom go in while everyone else waited outside. Peter called May to let her know that he would either be home late or stay at the tower for the night, and she showed up in the medical wing with a blanket and leftover dinner for everyone. She couldn’t stay, but she wished them well and told them to save some of her pie for Abby once she felt better.

“If she’s anything like you, Harley, then she’ll be able to tough it out and be better in no time. Call me as soon as there’s word, no matter how late it is. And you know I would tell you three to sleep but we’re all aware that none of you would listen, so just try and get some rest, alright?” 

They opened up the tupperware containers of still warm spaghetti and Tony and Peter didn’t try as hard as they could to have Harley eat something. Eventually Tony went back up, leaving the two boys to sit under a blanket, Peter refusing to leave Harley’s side, and Tony not blaming him for it. 

By three am, the boy’s were starting to fall asleep, Peter having persuaded Harley to have some food a bit after midnight, once they were both starting to feel the results of the day. Ms. Keener had come out of the room a bit after that, accepted the food Peter had offered her, and gone to bed. She told them that Abby had gone to sleep and advised them to do so as well, but didn’t argue when Harley told her they were going to stay. Now the entire tower was dark and quiet, and even the lights in the med bay had been turned off after one. Harley finally spoke up. 

“She’ll be alright.” Peter turned to Harley in mild to moderate surprise, as they had been sitting silently in the dark for over two hours already.

“Hmm?”

“Abby. She’s going to be okay, I know it. She was always the toughest one in the family. Everyone thinks that she got it from me, but the truth is, Abby has always been tough as nails and stubborn as a donkey. I didn’t get any of that until after dad left.”

Peter leaned his head on Harley’s shoulder and hugged him tighter. This is why he’d stayed.

“So I’m not worried about her,” Harley continued. “I know Mom is, and Tony is too, and so are you- I can tell.” He smiled. “I don’t know why though, you’ve only just met her. May’s worried too, so it’s probably just your nature. Parker genes. So I don’t know why I’m still waiting here for her to wake up.”

“She was crying,” Peter said, quietly. “When we were swinging back to the tower, and on that roof. Is that why?”

“Maybe.” He stood up and offered Peter a hand. “Hey, did I thank you for saving my sister yet?”

“Nah, but you don’t have to. It was implied, I guess.”

“Great. I’m not going to then. Do you want to go upstairs and watch pixar movies until we pass out?”

“Sound good. You and me-”

Harley smiles. “Us against the world.”

“No, idiot. It’s ‘against all odds’. We can’t make it obvious that we got this from a fanfiction.”

“Aw man. Does that mean I can’t call you Starboy?”

“No! And obviously you’d be Lance in this situation and I’d be Keith. It checks off- siblings, loud, kinda obnoxious, cute, has anxiety.”

“Yeah that’s fair, Starlight.”

“Harley no.”

 

.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo. 

 

Direct Message To: Mr. Dad

Mr. Dad: Good luck, Pete. DM me when you get your status  
Mr. Dad: I have faith in you kid

Intern Parker: thanks dad

Mr. Dad: you out of school yet?

Intern Parker: almost done with ninth. 

Mr. Dad: alright. Try to focus on class, okay

 

Peter was about to fall asleep on his desk, tbh. Harley’s vitals on his watch told him his boyfriend was about to do the same. Asleep or not though, he couldn’t quite shake the anxiety that he had woken up with. It wasn’t the same feeling as his spidey sense- there was no undercurrent of danger, just a low thrum of nerves that just wouldn’t go away. He couldn’t wait to be a second semester senior and just stop caring about school for a few months altogether. 

This wasn’t normal anxiety though, oh no. After all, today was MIT Early Action Decision Day, where he gets to figure out if he’s going to his dream school, or if he’s going to room alone across the state while Harley goes to MIT without him. Seriously- he could not wait for today to be over. 

Peter didn’t go out patrolling after school. He knew he probably should have, even if it was just to distract himself for a few hours, but he would have been able to focus anyways, and would have gotten shot or something. Instead, he went home to his little apartment with Ned and MJ and opened the door to see Harley already in the living room. The four proceeded to stress bake two batches of Bucky’s signature pumpkin-pie chocolate-chip cookies, leaving dirty mixing bowls and various materials scattered around the kitchen. An hour before decisions came out, as Peter and the crew collapsed onto the couch, Harley’s phone rang with a call from Tony.

“Hey kid. I’m sure Peter’s there with you, so put me on speaker, would you?”

Harley did, the room quieted so that Tony could continue.

“Hi Peter, hi Peter’s friends. Pepper says good luck, by the way Pete. So do the others, presumably, but I’m not at the tower right now, so I don’t actually know.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Peter says, at the same time that Harley says “Thanks Tony.”

“Seriously you two, listen up. I one hundred percent believe that you two are going to get into MIT, and you guys are going to be the smartest, awesomest kids there. Ted, I have no idea why you applied to Caltech instead of going to MIT like the cool kids, but if anyone deserves to get into their dream school, it’s you guys. Michelle-”

“It’s MJ,” MJ interrupts.

“-MJ then. MJ, you are going to get into Yale and you are be the best student in your year and the second you graduate Pepper is probably going to hire you as her personal assistant. In fact, all of you are guaranteed jobs at Stark Industries whether you want them or not, and if you apply for somewhere else I’m buying whatever company you apply to.”

Ned looked like he might cry, he was so happy. MJ kept her usual nonchalant expression, Peter could see a slight smile on her lips. Harley was smirking, but it was rather clear that he was trying to hide a grin, and Peter had no idea what his expression looked like, but his mouth was starting to hurt from smiling so widely. 

“Peter, Harley,” Tony continued, “I am so proud of you two. Clear out your closets- I’m getting you all the collage merch you could possibly want or need. Seriously, all of you; Good Luck. Catch you guys when it’s over.”

“Thanks, Tony. See you,” Harley says, and Tony hangs up a moment later. 

The clock ticks. Twenty more minutes, and then ten more. 

May comes home just as they’ve refreshed the page for the hundredth time. 

“Good gracious. You all look like you’ve just gotten the death sentence. Really only two of you should look like… that,” she waves a hand towards Ned’s face, “if any of you at all.” She turned to face Ned and MJ. “Why do you two look like it’s the end of the world? You aren’t even the ones figuring out if you’re getting in or not.”

She turned back to Peter and Harley. “Goodness gracious, you two, stop being so dramatic. You’re both getting in. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me, okay?”

MJ, probably the only sane one left in the room, turned to them with an impassive look on her face.

“You two literally both have rec letters from Tony Stark from all people, as do the rest of us. You sound like those kids on twitter that are like “Oh no, my GPA is only 18,000 and I captain both the math team and the basketball team; I really hope that’s good enough to get in,” like geeze shut up, we’re all over achievers and we’re all getting in. Sit down and refresh the page.  
And sure enough, MJ’s rant just about took them to the right time. 

“Okay, on the count of three, we’ll hit refresh at the same time,” Peter said. “One, two, three…”

Dear Peter Parker,  
Congratulations! On behalf of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I am pleased to announce your admission to our Class of 2024!

Peter and Harley looked at each other for about .5 seconds before staring at the other’s computer screen.  
“We got in,” says Harley.

“We got in,” Peter says back. Ned starts to scream.

MJ, still the only sane one, shouts towards the kitchen. “MAY, THEY GOT IN!”

There’s a shriek from the kitchen and a patter of feet before Aunt May rushes out of the kitchen and runs around to the couch to pass out hugs to all the teens huddled on it. “Congrats,” she says, giving kissing Peter’s cheek. “I knew you two could do it. I knew and I’m so, so, so proud.”

Harley isn’t crying. Really, he isn’t. 

“Tony!” Peter screams into his phone. “Tony, Dad, we got in, both of us. Ohmygod, we got in. We’re going to go the MIT. What.”  
The phone was on speaker when they heard Tony say “I told you so,” before hanging up. There’s a knock on the door and May opens it. Tony Stark himself barrels into the room.

“I was waiting outside for you two to get in,” he says. “Come here you two, I gotta hug you both so hard. I’m so proud of you two, you know that?” 

“We know,” Harley says into his shoulder. Aunt May, Ned, and MJ join the group hug, and they’re all laughing and some of them are crying too. 

“Come on, Harley. At college. You and me”

“Against all odds,” Harley completes, and then they’re laughing and crying again, and nobody else has any idea what’s going on.


	2. Hiatus Notice

So I used to have extended hiatus notices but I had to delete them, and I realized that new people wouldn’t know why I wasn’t posting anymore. So before we jump in, I would like everyone to know that I still love those series and I will return to it eventually. These are my boys and my universe and I love Parkner and this fandom. However, “eventually” probably means not until late spring of 2020. I’m writing another super big writing project that won’t be finished until then, but if you can stick with me till then, I will be returning. 

And at present I’m pretty sure looking at this series and thinking about writing more actually make me nauseous. That’s how stressed I am right now. Good stressed, but I can literally not write more of this right now because it’s,,,, a lot. Thank you for understanding. 

I love you all so much,  
Jack <3

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a Klance Fanfic by astralscrivener called Guys Like Us Are Cool In College (that’s the fanfic Pete and Harles mention). If you like Klance, check out their Squad Up Universe series! 
> 
> Spring break is finally here, and I’ll be taking to time to catch up on my writing and be hopefully less panicked about uploading (uploading? Is that the word?) once a week. :P
> 
> Thank you for reading, and now that you’re done, please leave me some feedback to tell me how I did because I need validation from strangers on the internet :)


End file.
